The Gorge is a sci-fi horror action movie that's produced by Apple Studios, Skydance Media, Lit Entertainment Group, and Crooked Highway and distributed by Apple TV+. Zach Dean wrote the script with Scott Derrickson directing.
The story is, two elite operatives are signed to two guard towers on the opposite sides of a gorge. It seems like a boring job just sitting around and watching over an uneventful gorge. But the more time passes the more the two learn of what kind of evil lurks underneath.
Initial Reaction
The sole reason as to why I wanted to see this movie is because Scott Derrickson is directing. I think he's a great directing, a bit underrated, but above all else I find him to be a great filmmaker.
Cons
Nothing here, just move to the next part.
Middle Ground
One mix bag comes from the pacing. There were a few parts when things were slow. I think had those scenes been tweaked little, then you won't nearly feel that 2 hour runtime. Now to move onto the romance. Yes, our two main characters start a romance. And in all honesty it's fine. Pretty standard stuff but nothing that made roll my eyes, mainly cause I've seen worse. I'll even fully admit there were some sweet moments. Overall, the romance is fine, it served its purpose.
Pros
Now for the good stuff, one being the special effects. They looked really good, the team did a tremendous job. I'll admit some parts looked off, but that was like once or twice. The rest of the time it's good. Now to me the movie did have some horror elements to them, but they didn't really grab my attention. So what about the action? Don't worry folks, it's awesome. I had loads of fun with the action scenes. They were exciting and I couldn't wait for the next one. Moving on from that, it's time to get to our main leads. Those being Miles Teller and Anya Taylor-Joy. I don't see them winning any awards from this BUT, they were very good. On their own great job, put them together and they do a fantastic job. I was surprised with their chemistry. Whenever they share the screen together it's one of the movie's biggest highlights. My last praise goes to Scott Derrickson's directing. Once again when it comes to having a good eye for what a shot should look like, Scott hits it out of the park. I'll even give two shots I wanted to share. Nothing too much, you guys know I try my best to give spoilers. Here's shot #1.
A little intense war going on there, I dig it. But here's shot #2.
I absolutely love the eerie vibes this gives off. Just imagine walking through this on a dark night.
While not by any means flawless, there is a lot to enjoy from The Gorge. So if you just want to sit around, watch an entertaining movie with your brain turned off, this one's got you covered.
My final rating is, Good.
That's going to do it for me, at least for now. Come back on Saturday, Feb 22nd, for my review of the newest horror movie, The Monkey. Until then, enjoy the rest of your day.
Captain America: Brave New World is a comic book movie based on the Marvel Comics' character Sam Wilson. The movie serves as the third sequel to the Captain America film series, a continuation of the miniseries The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, and the 35th movie in the MCU. Marvel Studios worked on production, while Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures as per usual distributed. The movie is written by Rob Edwards, Malcolm Spellman, Dalan Musson, Julius Onah, and Peter Glanz with Julius Onah also directing.
The story is, President-elect Thaddeus "Thunderbolt" Ross was almost assassinated by one of Sam Wilson's friends. Thinking there's something at play, Sam suits up as Captain America and goes on his own to find out what's going on. Little does he know, this conspiracy is bigger than he thought.
Initial Reaction
Now the movie was on my Most Anticipated list, the trailers looked good. Sure I'll always be a Steve Rodgers fan and I do this day don't agree with Sam being the new Cap, but hey who knows? Maybe we'll get a good movie?
Cons
My biggest problem with Brave New World is the villains. One villain, who I won't spoil, is the mastermind behind everything but, other than revenge he's just not interesting. Then there's Sidewinder played by Giancarlo Esposito. Now Giancarlo is a tremendous actor, a true talent, but I'm sorry, anybody could've played this character. Yes, that's how generic that villain was. Anybody could've played him and everything about that character would've been the same.
Middle Ground
Let's start with the action. Now there's this great fight scene with Sam and his sidekick flying around and battling jets, that was awesome. It was handled nicely. As for hand-to-hand...that's where we have problems. Some fights were okay, but there were few that just weren't good. Those ones made the actors looked sluggish. Then we have Shira Haas' action scenes (she plays someone named Ruth). Now I hate to come off as a total dick, especially since I'm by no means a seven foot tall giant but I'm sorry, when I saw this in theaters nobody took her fight scenes seriously. She's just too small. Whenever she was fighting in honesty looked like a kid beating up adults. Yeah, that's how tiny she is. Then there's the story. We get two character story arcs. Now Sam's could've have worked but it was done before. It's basically him thinking about if he's good enough to be the new Captain America. But like I wrote previously he went through this in the Falcon & Winter Soldier miniseries. But if you didn't see that, then they just make the problem forced. Almost all of the lines are some variant of Sam saying "Am I good enough to be Captain America?". The one who did get a good arc is Thaddeus "Thunderbolt" Ross. He grows threw some actual growth and truly wants to change as a person. But the sins of the past are challenging him. So I was way more engaged with his arc than Sam's. But the biggest issue with the story is it might as well have been a sequel to 2008's criminally underrated The Incredible Hulk. I mean it, Sam is dealing with Hulk's villain, there's plot points from Incredible Hulk brought here, and Sam is butting heads with Ross when it should be Bruce Banner/Hulk doing that. Then there's the nothing burger that was the post-credit scene. Basically if you know a plot element or the general story to previous MCU movies like Spider-Man: No Way Home, Doctor Strange 2, and Deadpool & Wolverine, then you pretty much know what the scene is referring to and can just skip it.
Pros
One of two things I liked was the tone. Sure there was some comedic moments, but the movie thankfully plays it straight. Then there's the pacing. The movie is a breeze to get through and doesn't waste any time.
While I don't hate Captain America: Brave New World I don't think it's worth rushing to theaters to see. So if you are planning to see this, just take your time, or wait for it to come to streaming. Whatever you prefer.
My final rating is, Okay.
That's all for now. Due come back on Monday, Feb 17th, for my review of the newest Scott Derrickson/Apple TV+ movie, The Gorge. Until then, enjoy the rest of your day.
The Karate Kid Part III is a marital artists drama movie and the third installment of film series, with Columbia Pictures both producing and distributing. John G. Avildsen and Robert Mark Kamen return once again to direct and writer.
The story is, Daniel and Mr. Miyagi have returned to Los Angeles, and while they are struggling they keep pushing forward with their new lives. However what they don't know is John Kreese is back and seeking revenge, and just to make matters worse, he's going after them on his own.
Negatives
The absolute worse thing about this, is the story. It's the same story as the first one's! There's only little differences here and there, but the plot is a rehash. But what really pissed me off more than anything about the story, it's Daniel's character regression. He's right back to being scared of school bullies and an upcoming karate tournament! Even though he has no reason! He's done this before, he's been there, done that, and got the t-shirt. For crying out loud, in Part II he had to fight to the death. After going through something like that school yard bullies and tournaments should be a breeze. But nope! He's back to being the old Daniel because reasons.
Mix
Now as mentioned before in the synopsis, John Kreese has an ally, and that guy's name is Terry Silver. This guy loves, LOVES being evil. He loves it so much he actually orders one of his assistants to hold his calls because he wants to help his buddy get revenge. Now that's funny as hell and really tells you just how much the guy enjoys being a bad guy. But despite that, it's such a bummer that a wonderfully entertaining nutcase wasn't given a stronger story.
Positives
Now I'm gonna keep the next two points brief because for the most part I'll feel like I'm just repeating myself from my last Karate Kid reviews. Once again Ralph and Pat are great together, their chemistry remains strong. But I definitely gotta give credit to Thomas Ian Griffith (he plays Terry Silver). He was awesome in his over the top scenes, but he was also great with scenes where he played the nice guy even though it's bs. Thomas did a fantastic job. And of course there's also the fighting. Regardless of the story's quality, the fighting is very entertaining and continues to be one of the highlights to the franchise.
The Karate Kid Part III is a disappointment. Its biggest crime being it's just blatantly ripping off the first film with only a very very very small dose of something new.
My final rating is, Bad.
Other than Terry Silver there's really no other reason to watch this. Anyways, that's all for now. Come back on Saturday, Feb 15th, for my review of Captain America: Brave New World. Until then, enjoy the rest of your day.
Vampires Suck is a parody movie spoofing the why was that ever a popular thing franchise known as Twilight. Production was done by Regency Enterprises & 3 in the Box, with distribution handled by 20th Century Fox. Jason Friedberg & Aaron Seltzer both wrote and directed.
The story is, Becca Crane has moved to a brand new town and tries to start a new life with her dad. Soon she meets a boy named Edward Sullen and the two quickly fall in love. But as they spend more time together as couple, their world takes a lot of bizarre turns. Hopefully they can handled that.
My Thoughts
So the movie starts off with Becca in an attempt to stop Edward from exposing himself. And in typically Friedberg & Seltzer fashion there's a lot of unfunny jokes but, and I can't believe I'm saying this, there is a pretty funny bit where the Team Edward fangirls go to war with the Team Jacob fangirls. If any of you were like me and sadly grew up with the Twilight craze and for SOME REASON asked Team Edward? or Team Jacob?, you'd understand just how ridiculous that debate was.
Afterwards we flashback to the very beginning of how Becca came to her new town. We learn that her and her father moved because her mother was having an affair with Tiger Woods. For anybody that's confused, back in 2009 pro golfer Tiger Woods was cheating on his wife with numerous women. It was a huge because Tiger was the face of golfing and was seemingly an innocent man with a perfect image. I bring this up because like I said it happened in 2009, first reported in Nov 2009 after doing some research. And this movie came out on August 18, 2010. By that time the scandal wasn't a big deal anymore and the jokes pretty ran their course. Once again, Friedberg & Seltzer are not very good being on time with their "jokes". Although, the scene does have a funny moment where Becca listens to her iPod (remember those?) and one of her mixes is titled "Teen Angst Mix". What's going on here? Friedberg & Seltzer are now two for two?!?
So they finally make it to their town where we see so visual gags related to vampires and Becca just can't put her finger on it on why she thinks her town is odd? Okay, that was also kind of funny. What the hell? Now Friedberg & Seltzer are three for three?!? They're not suppose to be doing this! They are not suppose to be kind of funny! Especially since the scenes are almost back to back. And just freak me out even more there's actually some good jokes about Becca's old room, including a dark one about her old pet hamster. Okay now Friedberg & Seltzer are four for four. Are they actually putting in effort this time around or they just getting lucky?!?
Later Becca meets Jacob and it's just some unfunny moments. Phew! Unfunny scenes in a Friedberg & Seltzer flick, I was worried for a moment that I miscategorized this movie. But anyways, after that Becca goes to her new school, and it's jokes you saw coming a mile away. And one of those unfunny moments is how a fellow student is describing that Becca is anti-social loner type, but she corrects him in saying she's more humorless and etc. This is annoying because yes, we get it! Bella from Twilight was one of the most generic and one-dimensional teenage angst characters ever written and anybody could've wrote her character. We know this, you talking about it doesn't make it any funnier. Also once again, phew!
Then our next scene is just pop culture joke after pop culture joke. First it's a joke aimed at the cast from MTV's Jersey Shore. And I'm by no means a fan of that show or the people in it but jeez. Friedberg & Seltzer weren't even trying with the lookalikes. Then we get a joke about the movie Dear John. It's unfunny but hey, at least this time around Friedberg & Seltzer are making fun of a movie that was still relevant by time this one came out. The main thing to take away from this scene is Becca & Edward are immediately in love with each other despite not even sharing a sentence together. Again, these jokes were already done to death. We've been there, done that, and got the t-shirt. I know I said "phew" earlier but what's happening? Earlier we were on a pretty good streak.
Afterwards we get a scene with the parody version of that one trio of vampires from the first Twilight movie. Yeah I'm gonna be honest, I didn't do that much research on the Twilight franchise so if I'm not saying anybody's name it's because I barely want anything to do with this series. I hated it back when it was for some reason a big cultural phenomena and I hate it now. The point is were introduced to these characters, we get a product placement for Cheetos, a joke about how the trio is mistaken for the Black Eyed Peas, unfunny beatdown scene, and then they kill a guy.
Then to my shock we get a funny moment where Edward saves Becca by using another student as a shield. Alright, we might be back on the saddle. Now it's five for five.
Becca would later return to her house...and we get a joke about Gossip Girl and Jacob making it obvious that he's also in love with Becca, but Becca saying she views him as her "gay little brother" and another joke with Jacob about him having dog features, because get it? He's actually a werewolf. And a joke about the Kardashians being the killers even though it's obviously vampires. Then later Edward visiting Becca's room when she's sleeping, which in return leads to unfunny gags and a product placement for Crest whitestrips. Damn. I spoke too soon, now we're off the saddle again.
Fast forward a bit where we now get into that scene in Twilight where Bella tells Edward she knows he's a vampire, but this a the spoof version so what do we get? Becca instead says that Edward is...a Jonas brother before being corrected, along with a product placement for Count Chocula, probably joke #678 about Twilight vampires sparkling when it sunlight, and a joke related to Tim Burton's remake of Alice in Wonderland. That last one was just as unfunny as the rest, but hey, I gotta give Friedberg & Seltzer credit, they went a whole thirty minutes and forty-nine seconds without referencing another movie. That's a record for them.
Once again I'm fast forwarding a bit, all you need to know is there was unfunny scene of Edward & Becca wanting to have sex, but decide not to, and an alright joke about a big picture. So that picture joke now puts Friedberg & Seltzer points at six. The really part of the story is after an unfunny scene where Edward's family try to eat Becca, this leads to their break-up which is sprinkled with some horribly written unfunny dialogue. Which also leads us to Becca getting attacked by the trio from earlier but Edward arrives to kill one of them and saves Becca from the poison that's in her body.
Then we're given yet more unfunny moments about how Becca is all broken up about not having Edward in her life. One moment was confusing because Becca along with her friend [Jennifer] go see a movie and it's Twilight: Breaking Dawn? So wait, does that mean in this universe Twilight is a film franchise some what based on Becca & Edward's real life? I guess it's just meant to be a joke but it's still confusing. Later on Becca is attacked by another male member of the trio, but before he can kill her Jacob arrives to save her and instead of turning into a werewolf, he turns into a chihuahua, I know you totally didn't see that coming. Because Jacob knows he doesn't stand a chance you calls for his pack...where this happens.
Yeah it's not one bit funny and it's just here to once again pad out the runtime, but hey! We didn't get an unnecessary dance number until we were fifty-seven minutes and forty-seven seconds into the movie. Once again, that's a record for Friedberg & Seltzer.
We then later cut back to Edward and how he's broken up about not being with Becca. It's also revealed that he's moved onto to someone else, that being Lady Gaga. I know I know, that's dumb but just roll with it, we're almost at the finish line. He's told by one of his family members that they had a vision and that Becca might be dead, so Edward wants to find out for himself. He calls Becca but Jacob answers and makes a huge misunderstanding happen. Because of that and his sister being too late to tell him her new vision shows Becca's alive, Edward sets out to kill himself.
We cut back to Becca where she meets up with Edward's sister and she tells her all about how Edward plans to kill himself. So now it's a race to get there before Edward's plan works, which leads us back to the beginning of the movie and thankfully even Friedberg & Seltzer knew it was a good idea fast forward from this part. Sadly this leads to a joke about how the day quickly changing from twilight, to new moon and then to eclipse. Get it? Because those were the title of the books. Can't you just hear that funny rimshot playing in the background? Anyhow, to make a long ending short, yeah they're really milking the runtime yet again, after a fight with the leader of some sort of cult (I don't care enough to know what their actually names are) and making a deal to turn Becca into a vampire, he agrees but only if Becca marries him, so he bites her and then gets hit in the head with a baseball with nails in it by a Team Jacob fangirl. And no, that's not how the movie ends. Just to make this a tiny bit longer, we've got a credit scene. All it does it show vampire Becca kill the fangirl. Thankfully, the end.
What Happened to Jason Friedberg & Aaron Seltzer?
Before I get into my final thought and rating I do want to bring this up.
After it was released to the surprise of nobody this received negative reviews, but did make money at the box office. Again, not surprising since like their previous movies they made this with a cheap budget. But was weird is for something reason this was the movie where Hollywood just seemed to drop these two.
Now I jumped the gun saying this is their final movie, what I should've said was this was the final movie I'm reviewing from them. But now back on topic, what I said previously was it seemed like Hollywood dropped them. From 2013 to 2015 they released three more movies. Those being The Starving Games, Best Night Ever (their first ever non-spoof comedy), and Superfast. Sure they were made and released but they paled in comparison to their previous releases. Those last three only got limited theatrical releases then what felt like one snap of a finger later they were on video-on-demand. Hell, I didn't know those existed until years afterwards.
In May 2014, the duo announced a parody of Taken called Who the F#@k Took My Daughter?, but nothing became of that. Then in Feb of 2017, they announced a parody of the newest Star Wars films with the stupidly long title of Star Worlds Episode XXXIVE=MC2: The Force Awakens The Last Jedi Who Went Rogue, with filming scheduled for late 2017, but nothing happened.
So what happened to them? It seemed Hollywood never wanted to let them go, so why haven't they been working since 2015? Well some say internet meme culture and such put a nail in the coffin for spoofs, so these two just went on their merry way. But I don't know, if that was the case then studios might as well not make comedies at all regardless if it's a parody or not. And just to further prove that we are getting Scary Movie 6 next year. Maybe these two just decided to quietly retire?
Whatever the case, while I do absolutely hate their films, I'm hoping they're doing okay. Sure they made shitty movies but I don't think that means you should have a shitty life.
So now for my final thought. While there are some funny moments, Vampires Suck is just another terrible parody movie brought to us by Friedberg and Seltzer.
My final rating is, Awful.
That's all for now. Sadly things aren't gonna get any better because on Thursday, Feb 13th, I'll return to the Road to Karate Kid: Legends with my review of The Karate Kid Part III. Until then, enjoy the rest of your day.
Love Hurts is an action comedy movie, it's produced by 87North Productions with Universal Pictures distributing. The story is written by Matthew Murray, Josh Stoddard, and Luke Passmore, with Jonathan Eusebio not only directing but making his directorial debut.
The story is, things are great for Marvin Gable. Not only is he a successful realtor but he was just awarded the highest honor for his hard work. But his past comes back when the woman he fell in love with ask for his help. Now, Marvin must become his old dangerous self again.
Initial Reaction
Now this was on My Most Anticipatedlist because 87North just brings some exciting action flicks. So when I found out about this movie, I just had to see it.
Cons
The only thing I truly hated about the movie was the romance between Marvin and Rose. It's mainly because the writers made Rose a terrible love interest. She's only in this for herself and because of that Marvin's life is ruined. He can never go back to the realtor job he loved so much, he has no choice but to go back to his old crime life. And it's not like the writers were making a cautionary tale about love, no, they truly want you to believe this is a romantic story. Sure Rose is hot, but sometimes a man has gotta take a step back and realize, "Nope. That fine ass is not worth it".
Middle Ground
There's three gray areas, let's start first with the comedy. I'll admit some parts did get a laugh out of me, but there were instances where I was just sitting there in silence because a joke or moment just wasn't funny. Then there's the performances. Ke Huy Quan did a fantastic job. He was the perfect balance of comedy and badass. If he ever does more action-comedies I can definitely see him being the new Jackie Chan. Everybody else's performances, they're fine. They didn't blow me away, but they got the job. Then there's the story. I didn't hate it. It has some entertainment to it, but I will admit it was standard. Sure I've reviewed movies like that before, but those still had more to offer. This one only has a bit of that.
Pros
Now to move onto the truly good aspects. One being the action. The story might not be the strongest, but I can't deny that the action was very fun. This is also a very fast paced movie. Whether you love it, hate it, or just think it's okay, regardless of your feelings, at least it's a breeze to get through.
So while I didn't hate Love Hurts, as far as 87North action flicks go, this is definitely one I'm not gonna immediately want to revisit again.
My final rating is, Okay.
That's all for now. Come back on Monday, Feb 10th, for my Cinematic Disaster review of Vampires Suck. Until then, enjoy the rest of your day.
That's right, usually when I do this it's during the Halloween season. But then I realized I should've made "vs." during any season because there remakes out there that aren't horror related. So let's get started with the True Grit films.
Contender #1 - True Grit (1969)
Director - Henry Hathaway
Writer(s) - Marguerite Roberts
Release Date - Jun 11th, 1969
Production - Wallis-Hazen
Distribution - Paramount Pictures
Budget - $900,000
Gross - $31,100,000
Contender #2 - True Grit (2010)
Director - Joel and Ethan Coen
Writer(s) - Joel and Ethan Coen
Production - Paramount Pictures, Skydance Productions, Mike Zoss Productions, DreamWorks Pictures, and Scott Rudin Productions
Distribution - Paramount Pictures
Budget - $35-38,000,000
Gross - $252,300,000
Story
The story for both films is, a hired hand by the name of Tom Chaney has shot and killed Frank Ross. While he's on the run, Frank's daughter Mattie hires lawman Rooster Cogburn to hunt him down, along the way they meet Texas Ranger LaBoeuf, who's also hunting down Chaney. All three of them decided to work together, find Chaney, and bring him to justice.
Round #1 - Visuals
As per usual these seems very unfair because both directors had very different equipment to work and different budgets. So it makes sense one would have more of style to than the other. So how to I judge this then? Well simply put it's the director (or directors) experiment with their cameras. Hathaway showcases a lot beautiful landscapes and keeps his camera strongly in focus, but the Coen Brothers play with the camera much more. Closes up here and there, also showcasing the great cinematography etc.
So...as unfair as it might seem, point for the remake.
Round #2 - Characters
Oh boy, this one was kind of hard. Because both the original and remake have very different main characters. '69 Mattie is very determined to get Chaney, but she's also much more realistic and very innocent. With '2010 Mattie she's also determined, but very vengeful. Hell, revenge almost seems to be the only thing on her mind. Then there's LaBoeuf. Both versions are over their head but what separates them is 1969 still knows what he's doing, where as 2010 version is very by the book and you kind of get this feeling he's demanding to be taken seriously by Cogburn. Speaking of which, let's get to the man everybody pays to see, Rooster Cogburn. Now let's get this out of the way. Yes, '69 Cogburn is basically John Wayne, but that's what people wanted to see, However! The character is shown to be tough and cunning while still caring about others. Then we have the remake version, while still tough and badass in his own right, he seems lost and does what to do what's right.
So who wins? Well honestly I'm calling it a draw. I understand you could argue the remake wins because the characters seem much more flawed. A good argument, but I didn't hate the 1969 characters either so, it's a tie.
Round #3 - Action
To make this quick I'm calling this a draw as well. Because both provide some fun gun fight scenes. Although the remake's is much more brutal, but come on. The original couldn't show that much violence given it was the 60's. The best it could do was shoot and show the guy falling down. Unlike the remake where it's shoot, see the impact/blood splatter, and then the guy falls down. So yes, this round is a tie.
Round #4 - Story
Final round and it's all about the story! Let's start with the original. But first, let me state something, the original rightfully deserves all of the credit it gets. It's still a good movie and belongs in film history, having said, in pure unbias way, it is a typical revenge story, especially one for a John Wayne film. Bad guy is defeated, character goes off to have another adventure, the end. Sounds harsh I know but, getting from point A to point B was still handled very well.
With the remake...damn, it's dark. We still get our revenge story, but one of our main characters [Mattie] isn't left very happy. She spent a piece of life seeking revenge and got it, but in the end all of the people she meant along the way and befriend are either dead or their fates are left unknown. It's a very bittersweet story.
So which one wins? Well, while I'm all for stories where our hero gets revenge and we all cheer "Yeah! Revenge is awesome!", I do also enjoy a story about how revenge doesn't always give you much. So the winner of this goes to the remake.
Winner - True Grit (2010)
So I hope you enjoyed this edition of vs. Due come back on Saturday, Feb 8th, for my review of the newest action flick, Love Hurts. Until then, enjoy the rest of your day.
Season three is on the way, so let's look back at the previous season.
Invincible is an adult animated series based on Robert Kirkman's hit comic book series with the same name. Amazon Prime Video distributed with production being done by Adelaide Productions, Sony Pictures Productions, Skybound North, Wind Sun Sky Entertainment, Skybound Animation, and Point Grey Pictures and Amazon MGM Studios. The show's created by Robert Kirkman and this season much like the previous one consist of eight episodes.
The story is, it's been a month since Mark's fight with his own father Omni-Man. Both him and his mother are trying to get their lives back together, but it's hard for them with the constant guilt and feelings of betrayal. But when someone from an alternate world seeks vengeance, Mark needs to get his head together if he wants to save and protect the ones he holds close.
Why The Delay?
If you read my Dog Man review then you already I should've had this uploaded yesterday. Well the reason for the delay was my dad needed my help fixing up my grandpa's car. And instead of being a dick and saying "no", it was best if I gave him a helping hand. So by the time I came home I was tired and didn't really want to work on this review or even upload it. So sorry if you had to wait one more day.
Negatives
I've got nothing.
Mix
The one and only mix bag comes from the storytelling. Let's start with the good. One being a lot of side characters get some really good stories. We got Debbie who's going through an absolute crisis because she never really knew her husband and it feels like there's almost nobody for her to talk to. Then there's Rex who goes through really good development. Hell, even Donald, a minor character from the last season gets a good story about trauma. The only okay stories come from Mark aka Invincible. He essentially has two stories. His best one is his inner conflict. Him holding back because he fears if he doesn't he'll become just like his father. The other half is all of the college and relationship drama. Now I didn't mind him struggling with college because that was naturally gonna happen. They planted the seeds for that in the last season. It's the relationship with Amber I grew tired of. Now Amber is better written this time around, the problem stems from the fact the writers were really stretching the whole "will they break up or stay together?!" Then there's the villains and their stories. Now we don't get too much of the Viltrumites but what we do get is good enough. The writers did a good job hyping up how evil they are and made us excited to see more of them. But then we have Angstrom Levy. There were moments where I completely forgot about him. The issue being despite being one of the main villains he doesn't happen very much. He appears in the first two episodes, disappears for awhile, makes appearances in episodes six and seven, but it was at the very end so those are basically cameos, and doesn't do anything until episode 8, the very last episode! I get there were other stories going on but they could at least shown us how he was preparing to fight Invincible. Then not only do we see him more often but then we get more hyped for his fight with Mark.
Positives
Now to the good stuff. Starting with the bloody and gruesome action. Basically if you loved that stuff in season one then you won't be disappointed here. I especially appreciated it episodes 4-5 and 8. With four it made the fight on the planet Thraxa more badass. And with five the violent action made the Guardians of the Globe fight more intense and makes you feel bad when they get brutally kicked around or worse, killed. Then with episode eight, it added to Mark's struggles.
Then there's the animation. Once again the animation is great. While it can sometimes look off in some scenes, nine times out of ten it's great. I especially loved it in episode four, where we see where Omni-Man [Nolan] fly through space. Beautifully looking cinematography there.
The last thing I'll praise is the voice acting. The cast does it again. They were amazing, especially Steven Yeun, he has become the voice for Mark Grayson/Invincible. I mean it, he's become that just like the late Kevin Conroy is considered the voice to Batman or Peter Cullen is considered the voice to Optimus Prime. And as for J.K. Simmons, he again proves he's just as good at voice acting as he is to acting in live-action.
While the story was a bit rusty in some areas, season two was still an entertaining watch.
My final rating is, Great.
So yes, I can't wait for season three. Although let's hope it's not broken into two parts like this one was. That was still a stupid decision. But I digress. Due come back on Thursday, Feb 6th, for something special regrading the two True Grit films. Until then, enjoy the rest of your day.
Dog Man is an animated action comedy film based on Dav Pilkey's children's graphic novel series of the same name, and serves as a spin-off to the 2017 movie Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie. Production was handled by DreamWorks Animation and distributed by Universal Pictures. The movie was written and directed by Peter Hastings.
The story is, after officer Knight and his dog Greg were injured on the job, a life-saving surgery changes everything and gives birth to Dog Man. Now, this new breed of hero must find a way to stop the diabolical Petey the Cat.
Initial Reaction
It's very simple as to why I wanted to see this. I saw the first trailer, laughed a bit, and so I decided to give it a chance. Simple as that.
Cons
I've got nothing.
Middle Ground
The story is the biggest middle ground. First the good. While the story is very simplistic there was a pretty good message of trauma. No it's nothing extremely graphic, it's more of if someone was a jerk to you, do you want to be the jerk to someone else, or take that experience and be a better person? That sort of thing. So while the movie is primarily aimed towards kids, like many good movies before it, there's at least something there for adults to be interested in. Now for the flaw. The flaw being a lack of balance between the characters of Dog Man & Petey the Cat. Petey sometimes does get more attention than Dog Man. However, I don't think it damages the movie too much. Sure it's an issue, but one you can let slide and not consistently focus on again and again.
Pros
Okay let's move to the pros. One being the pacing. It's not a long movie to begin with but man it sure does breeze by. I actually didn't feel like I was sitting in my seat for an hour and thirty-four minutes. Then there's the humor. Some jokes are repetitive, but for the most part I was having a good time. I still laugh at the two doctors and their plan to save the dog's life. Sure I've seen it the trailers and I do believe a TV spot, but it's such a great WTF moment. The last thing I'll praise is the animation. Much like with Captain Underpants movie, the animators did a fantastic job brining the books' art to life. There's also a great energy to it. Which kind of makes sense given the fact that the director [Peter Hastings] worked on shows like the classic version of the Animaniacs. So if what I just wrote is right up your alley when it comes to animation, then by all means go see Dog Man.
While you'll more than likely find an issue or two, Dog Man is still worth watching and I think if you have a family then yes. Take the kids, especially if they already want to see the thing.
My final rating is, Good.
That's all for now. Come back on Monday, Feb 3rd, for my review of season two of Invincible. Until then, enjoy the rest of your day.
